A Teacher Talks about "A Poet's Sourcebook"

Here's a small review of A Poet's Sourcebook, from one of the readers who matters most to me--a teacher who is committed to bringing poetry to young people:

This book has given me so much to think about. I can't imagine how we've all lived without it for so long. Thank you for taking the time and care to assemble something so thoughtful and useful. I was especially excited to see the final entry--something that was newly discovered when I traveled to the Frost Place in 2010. Still remember seeing the original page and carefully transcribing those very words in my notebook while sitting in the barn. As a teacher interested in drawing in students, I think that last entry is really important. It validates their experience and inspires them to think about their own ideas about poetry. If I were teaching a high school poetry class, this book would be in every student's hands.

The final entry to which she refers was written by a ten-year-old boy from New Hampshire. And I've just learned from his teacher, another Frost Place alum, that his entire school is thrilled about his success as a published author. The principal lauded him over the PA, and he gets to be featured on a poster in the library. I'm so grateful to that teacher for sharing his writing with me, and the world.

Here it is:

Poetry is like a very well read 3 year old, it uses terrific words, but uses them so strangely and it always spouts the truth you don't want other people to hear in public. . . . It'll act all cute and funny and make you smile for its cleverness, then keep you up all night yelling and screaming about something you don't understand at all.